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Its still hard for me to picture the baffle. My question is why not just sew the inner and outer layer together not only on the edges but where the baffles should be. For example every 7 inches sew a line connecting the inner and outer layer and then filling the down into the new "channels" of the inner and outer layers. What is the significance of the baffles in place of what I describe.

Its still hard for me to picture the baffle. My question is why not just sew the inner and outer layer together not only on the edges but where the baffles should be. For example every 7 inches sew a line connecting the inner and outer layer and then filling the down into the new "channels" of the inner and outer layers. What is the significance of the baffles in place of what I describe.

You are describing "sewn through" construction. It's used on some summer weight quilts. The problem with sewn through is that no matter how much loft you have in between the stitch lines, you will have zero loft at the seams. Baffles allow the quilt to fully loft across it's entire width and length without the "cold spots" that sewing through would create.

I love these instructions, I have 4 quilts on the go right now so that I can induct my wife and kids into the "hanger's" club in the spring. I have made them all hammocks and tarps already so this is all that is standing in the way of a complete set-up for all of us.

One thing though, on Jeff's sight, at the top of the article on this quilt, he says:

"The quilt is made with an outer shell of a down proof fabric. This can be 1.1 oz DWR ripstop nylon or Momentun90 available at www.thru-hiker.com as used in this project. The outer shell is chosen to be a lighter color to keep radiant heat loss to a minimum, and the inner shell material is chosen to be black to help absorb your radiant heat."

I think Jeff has this color scheme backwards with respect to radiant heat retention or loss. Dark colors absorb energy, and the idea of insulation is to retain heat. A light color near the hanger will reduce radiant heat loss by the camper and a dark outer color will potentially absorb any available radiant energy from radiant sources. But the real function of the under quilt is to stop or slow the loss or heat energy through convective means, and in this case, color has no influence on convection energy transfer. That is where the down come into play.

Sorry, I had to get my geek on. That's what being an engineer will do to you.

done with 20$ uq and 5$ nylon summer tarp......... who says a 12 year old cant fire up a thread injector and make some afordable gear! got my sights on a diy winter tarp.your cheap 12 year old hanger nutty squrirrel

just too add, i have taken my uq down to the teens which is about as cold as it gets here, i will be adding grossgain channels and ridgeline stays for the middle of the uq. aside from the weight this is a great quilt.